Sophie. Music Video Analysis 2.

Performance-Concert.

Justin Bieber-Never Say Never

In Justin Bieber's music video for "Never Say Never", the main objective is to promote his world tour and movie. While watching the video you get an in-concert experience as you watch Bieber performing in an arena to thousands of fans. The craziness of the fans is focused on a lot, exaggerating his fan base and the hype around him. For example a clip of a girl running on stage and being held back by security is used, along with many clips of fans crying. This helps with promotion. Most of the crowd are teenage girls, Bieber's main target audience.

 Clips are also used in the video of Bieber's childhood, of him playing the drums and saying he "wants to be on TV"demonstrating his childhood dream and showing fans that you should "never say never".

Celebrities have camo's throughout, such as Usher helping promote Bieber once again. Studio and dance rehearsal shots are used illustrating the behind the scenes view that his fans crave while showing that he works hard doing what he does.

Other clips are used such as Bieber upset and exhausted, demonstrating the hardships of being a teen sensation has. This shows a vulnerable and exposed side to Bieber, appealing to his young audience.

The lyrics of the song are very metaphoric for Bieber becoming a star. Through out the song, the lyrics reflect Bieber over coming obstacles and achieving his dreams. Also during Jaden Smith's rap section of the song the young star references his father Will Smith while singing "raised by the power of will" which entitles a camo of the Smith family. At the end of the song, Bieber sings "put your hands up" which then the audience then all do, creating hearts with their hands. This is obviously staged but creates a sense of unity within Bieber's fan base.

Lip and instrument syncing are used throughout the performance and video, but also the dancing is synced. Bieber and his dancers perform many moves throughout the song and the dances are edited and synced appropriately. The chorus of the song is concert and fan heavy, while the verse feature more flashbacks and clips from the movie.


As for notions of looking, the editing of the video includes changing scenes using an old film roll which then moves onto the next scene. As Bieber fan based is young girls, no voyeurism is used. Biebers record label want him to have a clean image as it would help the movie, music and merchandise. Being family friendly.

The concert experience is exaggerated heavily with dances, lights, fans and other aspects in this music video. This videos main purpose is promotion and to appease Biebers fan base.

By completing this task I gained insight on what a performance video would look like. This inspired ideas for our own video. Also it allowed me to see Goodwin's theory applies to all videos.